Quality of exported (unedited) video way worse?

[Oiam]

Dear AMV community,

i feel like someone put a curse on me so i can never truly export in a good video quality, lol.

Here is my problem/question:

I downloaded anime footage (1280 x 720; MP4). Looks really nice on my PC, yet everytime i import the video into my edit program, do NOTHING with it (completely unedited), export it with the same settings (1280 x 720; MP4; same FPS) right after and upload it to YouTube, it looks very un-pretty imo (even after a few days of waiting). Especially if i compare it with other videos of the same material (but where could they find better footage if there should be none - there are no BDs/DVDs).

So my core question is: If you had the same footage, what would you do to minimize the quality loss after exporting and uploading (Format, FPS changes, etc.)? Am i doing this right?

Thank you!

[l33tmeatwad]

Every time you compress footage it will degrade the visual quality, and uploading to youtube compresses again as well. It's not surprising a video that was probably compressed from a compressed source was then compressed again then uploaded to youtube to be compressed again doesn't look so great.

[Oiam]

@l33tmeatwad:

Yes, that´s what i also thought... Hm, so apparently there isn´t anything more to it. Still wondering how others could do a better job if i haven´t found any better footage online. But anyway, thank you for the reply!

[l33tmeatwad]

Well, unfortunately the YouTube encoders are really bad so even the best footage will end up looking kinda bad.